VARDY STRIKE
JAMIE VARDY’S 58th-minute strike gave Leicester City a 1-0 win at Everton yesterday and condemned the Merseysiders to their fourth defeat in five Premier League games.
Leicester boss Claude Puel made four changes from the team that lost to Cardiff City on Saturday, including leaving midfielder James Maddison on the bench, while Marco Silva recalled Brazilian Richarlison to his starting line-up.
After a poor first half, the decisive goal came when Everton defender Michael Keane mis-controlled the ball to Ricardo Pereira, who sent Vardy through.
The striker made no mistake with a low drive past Jordan Pickford.
Gylfi Sigurdsson blasted over from a promising position for Everton but Leicester should have doubled their lead when Harry Maguire somehow missed the target from point-blank range.
Everton, with just one win from their last eight games have now failed to win in their last four home matches while the win moves Leicester up into seventh place, on 31 points, four behind Manchester United.
Everton boss Silva was frank in his assessment of his team’s performance.
“A poor performance to be honest. In this moment we have to be honest and look clear at the game.
Arsenal bounced back from their thrashing by Liverpool to beat Fulham 4-1 and move two points behind fourthplaced Chelsea.
The Gunners suffered their heaviest defeat of the season on Saturday when they lost 5-1 at Anfield, but goals from Granit Xhaka, Alexandre Lacazette, Aaron Ramsey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang helped them to only their second win in six games.
After Ryan Sessegnon had missed two good chances for Fulham, Xhaka put the hosts ahead, finishing past Sergio Rico after a good cross from the impressive Alex Iwobi.
Lacazette doubled the lead when he finished off Sead Kolasinac’s pull-back following a fine Arsenal passing move.
Aboubakar Kamara pulled one back from close range for Fulham, but Ramsey converted the Gunners’ third after Aubameyang had hit the post.
Aubameyang’s deflected shot gave Arsenal their fourth and a deserved three points.
It had been a poor festive season for Arsenal as they only managed a 1-1 draw at Brighton on 26 December before their thrashing at Anfield.
The Gunners were again without Mesut Ozil, with the German still sidelined with the knee injury that kept him out of the Liverpool match, while Ramsey, out of contract in the summer and a transfer target for Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Juventus, Paris St-Germain and Real Madrid, was only among the substitutes.
Nevertheless, the hosts took a 25thminute lead when Xhaka finished from Iwobi’s cross and they ended the first half strongly with chances for Matteo Guendouzi, Xhaka and Aubameyang.
A wonderful passing move down the left wing after 10 minutes of the second half, involving Iwobi, Kolasinac and Lacazette, led to the Gunners’ second as the Frenchman scored his seventh Premier League goal of the campaign.
Fulham pulled one back but Ramsey, who had only been on the pitch for four minutes, scored Arsenal’s third after Aubameyang’s effort had hit the post.
The Gabon striker added a fourth late on after a pass from Sokratis to score his 14th league goal of the season, one more than both Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah, and regain his position as the outright top goalscorer in the Premier League.
Arsenal started the game with three centre-halves – Laurent Koscielny, Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi – but were lucky not to fall behind as Ryan Sessegnon twice missed good chances when it was goalless.
The Gunners changed to a back four at half-time but Fulham still created opportunities and Kamara’s goal means the Gunners have not kept a clean sheet in six games in all competitions and have only stopped the opposition from scoring in three of 21 Premier League games in 2018-19. |
REUTERS